Ellicott City man arrested for string of Christmastime burglaries

Yvonne Wenger, The Baltimore Sun

An Ellicott City man was arrested Friday in connection with a string of Christmastime burglaries, Howard County police said.

Kenneth William Vollmerhausen, 28, of the 8500 block of High Ridge Road, had been on probation after pleading guilty on Dec. 4 to a Carroll County first-degree burglary when he allegedly broke into several Howard County homes between Dec. 17 and Thursday and stole jewelry, police said.

Vollmerhausen is awaiting trial after having been indicted in Howard County Circuit Court for two first-degree burglaries last April.

Police said Vollmerhausen is accused of burglarizing a home in the 2600 block of Melba Road in Ellicott City on Dec. 21. A woman returned home when she found a man holding her jewelry, police said. The man threw the items at her and fled in a light blue GMC truck, first hitting a fence in the yard, according to police.

An investigation linked Vollmerhausen to several burglaries, including watches and jewelry that were stolen from a home in the 7300 block of Kindler Road, Columbia, on Dec. 26 and jewelry stolen from a home in the 8800 block of Old Frederick Road in Ellicott City on Dec. 17. Police said another home in the 8800 block of Old Frederick Road was broken into on Thursday, but nothing was reported stolen.

Police found several burglary tools in the front seat of Vollmerhausen's 1991 light blue GMC Sierra truck, with a license plate that matched the truck that fled the burglary in Ellicott City on Dec. 21.

Vollmerhausen is being held without bond in the Howard County Detention Center on multiple counts of burglary and related charges.